Apparently, the mighty Blue Jays are looking into trading stud young outfielder Alexis Rios, presumably for pitching help. This is yet another case of teams trying to "balance" their team by being mediocre in all facets of the game. Honestly, I'm not fond of the Jays' lineup to begin with, but that is supposedly the strongest part of their club. Any team that is relying on Troy Glaus and Frank Thomas to be their power threats is destined to fall short of the playoffs. So trading one of their better bats for what would most likely be a middle of the rotation pitcher is just going to give them less pop and an extra average arm to deal with.

 I feel like I'm rambling, so I'll just state it more directly:

Aces in the rotation, stud arms in the bullpen, and mashers up and down the lineup are what wins games most easily. Ted Lily and his kind have never and will never win anything other than a few cheap regular season games. For the Blue Jays, trading Rios is just a way to account for losing out on Lily and Gil Meche earlier in the year. But those guys wouldn't scare a soul if the Jays were in a playoff race. Rios batting leadoff or number two would though. But rather than try to build a solid lineup top to bottom, the Jays are trying to win with the "my fourth starter is better than yours" method. Not gonna work, JP. Any pitcher in the majors could potentially be a back-end starter. Very few players in the majors have the skill set that Rios has. There is a reason the Sox signed Drew and did not trade Manny. You need to dominate at least one part of the game to win. Maybe the good ol' Orioles could give up Hayden Penn for Rios and solve their longterm outfield troubles? This fan hopes so.